Chapter 41: Lost In The Woods
The party assumed a battle formation at once.
Winston took the front. He raised his shield high, ready to fulfill his duty as the tank and take the full brunt of the threat ahead.
Leonard gripped Titanic Oath firmly. The infused frost touched his skin gently, bringing a pleasant chilling sensation.
Because he didn’t want to reveal his Dimensional Storage just yet, he had arrived at the examination with the weapon already strapped to his back like everyone else.
Harley positioned herself at the very rear, her legs bent as she raised her rapier until its tip was level with her eyes. Despite looking the most fragile, she occupied the heaviest-hitting role, having recently attained a class.
The surroundings in front of them swayed, and beyond the trees emerged a large monster.
Unlike normal dungeons, the Void differed because it contained no bosses of any kind. As a result, whenever an awakener encountered a monster, the system would announce its name and level, giving them an advantage, like now.
[Level 10 Orc.]
The orc towered at nearly two meters tall. His broad shoulders and condensed muscles were built for raw physical power. His jutting lower jaw bore sharp tusks, and the thick skin covering his body was olive green.
A hide concealed his waist, while the rest of his body was left exposed. In his right hand, the orc carried a heavy club carved from one of the nearby dark trees.
Leonard’s eyes narrowed. From what he knew, orcs tended to lack intelligence, barely managing to string a sentence together. However, they compensated for that flaw with the immense physical strength of their bodies and their overwhelming numbers whenever they came from camps.
"Found more humans... Bring to camp... Get reward." The orc said as his eyes settled on the humans before it.
Without hesitation, he bent his knees and exploded forward with monstrous force. Raising his club high, he swung at Winston without a second thought.
For a brief second, Winston trembled, yet when he remembered that there were people depending on him, he steeled his resolve and met the strike head-on.
His body shuddered from the impact as the force traveled through his shield, his feet sinking into the ground. Even so, he managed to hold his ground.
"We’re in the same weight class!" Winston remarked, trying to ease his worries.
The orc was too stupid to find the joke amusing. The monster prepared to unleash another strike with its club, but by then Leonard and Harley had already flanked it.
Leonard swung first. He didn’t conserve mana, using Lightning Strike to sever the orc’s free arm in a single motion.
The skill amplified the attack’s power by a whopping 270%. The orc shuddered as electricity coursed through his body, while the axe’s frost simultaneously slowed his movements.
A pained grunt escaped from the orc’s maw. In retaliation, he swung with the club in a wide arc.
Out of the three, Harley had the smallest build. The orc thought that eliminating her first would be easy.
Yet long before the strike could ever connect, wind currents wrapped around her body.
"Feint." She whispered, ducking low to avoid the blow faster than a heartbeat.
Her eyes sharpened, and her arm blurred.
"Rapid Thrusts."
The wind that helped her dodge the attack traveled to her arm. She proceeded to thrust her rapier, stabbing the orc’s only remaining arm several times in quick succession.
Before the orc could comprehend what had happened, the wounds on his wrist, shoulder, and joints forced him to let go of the club.
"I don’t have such fancy offensive skills, so take this!" Winston declared, striking the monster in the chest with his hammer.
The orc’s legs gave in, and it toppled to the ground behind him.
Fury burned in the monster’s gaze. Yet when he looked up, the only thing the orc was able to see was Leonard’s falling axe, heading straight for the throat.
[You have defeated a Level 10 Orc.]
[You have gained 200 Experience!]
Level: 7 [Experience: 225/800]
The orc wasn’t a boss, so it didn’t give the same experience as the werewolf Leonard had defeated prior. Nevertheless, the gain was still substantial.
He exhaled deeply, remaining vigilant. Defeating one orc wasn’t a problem, but if there had been several, forcing the party to split their attention, things could have gotten messier.
"See? I have an Epic Bloodline and a class on top of that. Teaming up with me is a no-brainer." Harley raised her chin slightly, trying to appear more confident.
"From what I’ve heard, having more than one skill is only possible with a class. I think we can trust her about this, at least." Winston discreetly whispered toward Leonard.
"Sure, I guess it’s not like we have many options." Leonard turned toward Harley.
"What is your class?"
"I am a Fencer. The class enhances my attacks with rapiers and gives me the ability to unlock skills primarily focused on evasion and fast attacks." She replied, sparing no detail. "My battle style is an art form in itself... graceful and beautiful to look at."
Honestly, Leonard wasn’t surprised. The Fencer class suited Harley perfectly.
’At least one of us has a class.’ He thought.
Depending on how long they remained stuck in the Void and how many enemies they defeated, he and Winston could also go past Level 10 and attain a class.
After making sure there weren’t any other threats lingering in the area, they inspected the orc’s corpse.
Aside from the injuries they had inflicted on the monster, it was otherwise healthy. Its heavy steps had left a trail of footsteps along its path.
"Let’s track where the monster came from. Judging by its behavior, it was searching for humans. We might find more of the participants dragged here by the Void Believers." Leonard suggested.
"Agreed. It’s definitely better than mindlessly wandering around the forest." Winston nodded thoughtfully.
"But what are we going to do with the body? The orc mentioned a camp, and if others of its kind find it, we might alert them ahead of time." Harley said with a frown.
Leonard lingered for a few seconds, then he reached out and tried to use the teleportation ring over the orc’s remains.
Surprisingly, it worked. The body lit up before disappearing from sight.
"It appears that only the life-saving feature has been disabled. Otherwise, the ring functions as intended, transporting the monster’s remains." He explained.
"Do you think this will decide our final score? Sure, the entrance examination might have been tampered with, but the academy would still need to decide what grade to place us in once the survivors enroll." Harley wondered out loud.
"No clue. But hopefully sending the defeated monster over would signal that we are still alive." Leonard shrugged calmly.
"Wait! Maybe the rings can also track our location? If we wait for rescue, a unit could arrive!" Winston exclaimed with newfound hope.
Leonard shook his head.
"Since the Void Believers have disabled their life-saving feature, they would have turned off any tracking as well... Plus, remember we don’t have the luxury of time."
[Corruption 5%]
Lacking any protection from the corruption, it was only a matter of time before they succumbed to the Void.
Keeping watch over their surroundings, they followed the orc’s trail, searching for other humans and salvation.
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